A hackathon, despite the name, isn’t about hacking in the traditional meaning of the word. ‘Hacking’ in this context refers to creative problem solving. Thus, a hackathon is an event where participants typically form groups of about 2 to 3 individuals, get on their computers and dive into problems related to the theme of the hackathon over a short period of time.

A game jam is essentially just a hackathon but focused on game development on any platform you prefer (mobile, web, desktop, etc.)

You and your teammates (you must work with at least one other person!) have complete autonomy over what sort of game you come up with so long as your game doesn’t include the following:

Violence/Gore/Weapons/Guns

Drug Use

Discrimination of any kind (including but not limited to Racism/Sexism/Homophobia/Transphobia)

Anything you would NOT want associated with your name on the public ACM website

All in all, just keep it classy and fun for everyone! This is a great opportunity to band together with your fellow Lewis & Clark programmers to create something that could really make a positive social impact at LC. You also get the chance to collaborate on a cool project to put on your Github/resume!

The structure of the hackathon is pretty straightforward. Teams will have roughly 27 hours to create something using any and all technology at your disposal. We’ll go more into detail about limitations and criteria at the kickoff meeting Saturday morning at 10. The 3 teams with the top 3 projects as selected by our guest judges will win some exciting prizes.

On top of that all participants will be getting free food/refreshments throughout the whole duration of the hackathon. Even if your team doesn’t win first place, the goal of the hackathon is more to cultivate creativity and innovation within our Lewis & Clark Computer Science community.